Chasing Ghosts
by Jevryn's Destiny
Summary: Since the wicked Lokesh cursed the princes, they have been keeping to themselves in the Indian wilderness. Ren has been captured, felled by a cunning tiger trap, leaving Kishan alone with his miserable thoughts. A short story told by the younger brother who just wanted to love. Clean reviews please!


**Author's Note: A short little project that I decided to post as a small tribute to Kishan, so happy reading!**

I remembered my brother's ivory pelt, sliced with black stripes, with the scarlet blood running down it and the pure frustration in his brilliant blue eyes as the hunters carted him away.

I remembered the splendor of our home in the heat of the Indian sun. The rigorous, yet enjoyable training that took up the majority of our lives. The sparring, the intense ferocity of battle and the power-hungry ways of the politician.

I remembered too many things. Shaking my great head to rid myself of the flies buzzing too close to my eyes, I growled, a deep rumbling sound that warned potential prey of a tiger's presence.

Padding on at a rolling, easy gait, I raised my head in the splinters of sunlight that pierced the thick foliage of trees.

Yes, I was alone now. Dhiren had been captured and was no doubt subjected to a life of slavery. Kadam would probably assist him, but until that time, I was the master of this forest.

Unable to contain myself, I stretched my magnificent jaws in a luxurious yawn of satisfaction at my brother's plight. It was quite pleasing, at least to me, how Ren was paying for the pain he's caused me.

I felt a twinge of guilt. Regardless of what he'd done, Ren was my elder brother and I respected him and loved him and was concerned was his safety. Of course, that didn't mean I couldn't gloat- at least a little.

Twitching my tail, I sat down with a huff. After all, we were stuck in this form together, and I wasn't the one who'd been locked up. Finally, I'd bested my brother at _something._

However, our situation could've been worse; it was my opinion that Lokesh was cutting us some slack with turning us into tigers. He could've just as easily cursed with the form of a beetle- we'd be crushed, quite literally.

Even now, I could feel the coiled power pulsing in my muscles and the curved claws and deadly teeth that placed the tiger at the top of the food chain. Swiping my rough pink tongue over my jowls, I resettled my position, as restless as an actual cat.

Even so, that mad man had definitely had his motives for turning us into tigers, and none of them could be good.

A bird chattered at me, scolding me from its perch. Even from here, I could hear its glossy feathers rustling and its sharp-clawed feet gripping at the branch. In response, I snarled throatily, lifting my lips to allow the bird an eyeful of my gleaming white incisors.

It squeaked out a chirp of alarm and fluttered off into the sky. Rolling my eyes inside my tiger skull, I strode off into the jungle to seek out my next meal.

* * *

Days, long, boring days stretched out before me, along with horrible sense of foreboding, as if this was but a taste of what my life would be like.

I hunted at my leisure until my pelt was glossy as a house cat's. I wanted for nothing physical- not food, not shelter. My longing was for companionship.

Everyday when I woke at sunrise there would be a tightness in chest, in my very heart and my thoughts would flash to Yesubai, remembering the sweet scent of her hair and the way the light made her beauteous violet eyes shine. And then I remembered she was dead.

This was the way I lived my pitiful life, my mere existence just a pawprint left in the world. Year after year tormented me with thoughts of what I could not change.

_It was my fault she died. My fault Ren and I met this fate. My fault my father had to step down from the throne. All of it was my fault. _

* * *

One day I reached breaking point. I could not just prowl around in this wretched jungle, unable to come out of the shadows and meet that traitor Lokesh with bared fangs and steely claws at his throat!

For a man of action, I was woefully helpless. And I loathed it.

So I took out my frustration on a villager living nearby. He'd belonged to a lower caste than my own, but that was not why I slaughtered him. When the blood haze left my brain, I was broken. I grieved for his loss and my own. That made me realize; I couldn't do this anymore- I had to do something.

* * *

I do believe I would've perished in that jungle, (if the curse had allowed me to) if Kelsey had not come along.

She made me realize that I could change, I had just been holding back. That I would truly have to want to take action to achieve my goals. She saved me from wasting away under those trees, and I cannot thank her enough.

Could I really love her? Would it be disrespectful to Yesubai's memory? I do not know. And it doesn't matter. Kelsey has chosen Ren over me.

In that moment of rejection, I was back in the jungle, chasing ghosts. In that moment, my heart broke again- and I don't think any amount of action can repair it.


End file.
